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Sura Darzi
Sura Darzi is a wizard who arrived in Mithrasia a couple of years ago and has since become a powerful presence in any battle. She quickly gained a reputation for being arrogant and overly confident, but recent seasons have drained this confidence. It is rumoured that her over-confidence resulted in the death of an ally, and recently her arrogance led to her being overrun by Shadows, and Xeno rescued her at the cost of her eyesight. She has become a much less self-assured person, thinking carefully before she takes any action. Following Asha's example, she began writing reports of her adventures. They are collected below. Spring 353 Descovering the Mawsaka Tribes A group containing myself, the Druid Marillith, the Fighters Olaf and Serin, and led by Aria the Ranger, departed Whitmouth at the beginning of Spring to destroy the Unblinking Eye at the Temple of the Serpent God. On the way there we stopped at Robard’s Crossing and stayed the night. We noted that the river is lined with dead and rotting fish and amphibious animals. One of the villagers told us they had seen a giant, dead water serpent floating towards the sea. Between Robard’s Crossing and the temple we encountered many starving Lizard folk searching fruitlessly for food. They looked weak and starved. The temple had been ransacked by Lizard folk looking for anything edible, and in exchange for food they told us that the Unblinking Eye had been removed and carried away by Snake folk. In the rubble we found a robe with a volcano symbol on it. Aria tracked the Eye to an obelisk which had glyphs carved into it in an unknown language. One was glowing. Marillith touched it and disappeared, so the rest of us followed. It teleported us to another Obelisk in a Lizard village in the Caldera Jungle. This temple had formerly contained an Unblinking Eye, but the Lizard folk had destroyed it. I sensed very powerful magic emanating from the village. There were Lizard men with several different colours of scales, and they seemed to be divided into factions by colour. Marillith, who speaks their language fluently, explained that they were arguing over whether or not to rejoin the Serpent folk as little more than slaves, or go to war against them. The orange scaled Lizard folk seemed to be the most strongly in favour of joining the Snakes, while the blue skinned Lizard folk wanted to remain free and go to war. The orange skinned Lizard folk were wearing robes with the same volcano symbol as the one we found in the temple, leading us to suspect they had the Unblinking Eye hidden somewhere. We revealed ourselves to the Lizard folk, who strike me as very intelligent and civilised people. Olaf warned that he could hear heavy footsteps approaching the village, so one of the Lizard folk climbed a watch tower and reported that Serpent folk were approaching with a War Beast—which appeared to be a colossal featherless chicken. The Lizard folk hid us while the Snake folk visited. They seemed to be delivering an ultimatum; join soon or face war. When they had gone, the Lizard folk voted on whether to join or go to war, thus siding with Whitmouth. The vote was too close to call, so several undecided factions promised to change their vote in favour of Whitmouth if we, as the Warmblood representatives, proved ourselves worthy by destroying a Serpent tower in the mountains surrounding the Caldera. We set off with one of the blue scaled leaders, Tasaka, accompanying us. We noted that the whole time a group of orange scaled Lizard folk were following us, and on Tasaka’s urging we doubled back on the mountain to ambush and kill them. The ambush did not work out very well, but we were victorious none the less. We did accidentally cause a geyser to form on the side of the mountain, which could no doubt be seen from afar. Marillith then flew on ahead to scout the tower in the form of a pterodactyl, but was captured by the Serpent folk guarding it. Not long after she left a massive earthquake struck. When she did not return, we simply stormed the tower. It did not take long to defeat all of the Serpent folk, although Tasaka was badly injured due to a string of ill fortune for the party. I managed to save him with a healing potion before he died. Meanwhile, Aria found a great many treasures in the tower. Tasaka requested that the tower be destroyed, which I managed without too much difficulty with ritual magic. He seemed impressed at the display of magic, which perhaps made up for our earlier incompetence with the ambush and attack on the tower. We returned to the Tasaka’s village on the newly freed pterodactyls that had belonged to the Serpent men, only to find that fighting had broken out between the orange scaled Lizard folk and the other factions. It seemed that one of the orange scaled leaders, Nasak, had used the Unblinking Eye to turn himself into a monster. Further recovering from our earlier incompetence, we managed to defeat the monster almost easily, although my pterodactyl was killed in the battle. Serin struck the final blow, and a very impressive blow it was. The Lizard folk then agreed that they should ally with Whitmouth and go to war against the Serpent folk. We found the Unblinking Eye in Nasak’s house, and Olaf destroyed it. Before we left, I asked for Tasaka’s permission to return in the future to learn what I could from the Lizard folk, who I have come to admire greatly for their intelligence and generosity in the brief time I have spent around them. He seemed pleased by the request. I hope that Whitmouth's alliance with the Lizard folk with endure and gain victory in the seemingly inevitable war. Summer 354 Destroying an Unblinking Eye Aria led a party which included Olaf, Menoliir, Ghetsis and myself on a mission to explore the terrain South of the Goblin Caves in search of another Temple of the Unblinking Eye. When we entered the forest below the Goblin Caves we encountered a young Orc hunter, who seemed friendly enough. We asked if he knew of any Unblinking Eye temples. He did not, but he took us back to the Orc leader, a woman named Burra, for more information. The Orc settlement looked temporary. Almost like a refugee camp. Burra told us that they had seen Serpent men and Shadow Cultist Orcs heading South after battling each other, so we followed the trail of the Serpents. The Cultists also seemed to be following them, and by the time we reached the Temple it had been overrun by shadow. On the steps lay many dead, including a gorgon. Inside we found a Serpent wizard who was holding off waves of shadows with magic. We were forced to work with him in order to beat back the shadows. After the shadows had retreated, the Serpent wizard told us that his god gave him the power to fight the shadows, but in exchange demanded sacrifices, which is why they are at odds with the humans and some Lizard men factions. He also told us that the battle had moved down into the lower levels of the Temple, and that no one had emerged from the stairway since. We decided to try to defeat any remaining cultists in the Temple, and the Serpent wizard joined us. We defeated two cultists in the corridor, then searched the chapel. In it was a horrifying mound of dead Serpent and Lizard folk. The Serpent wizard was quite understandably distraught at the sight, but we pressed on and found a large number of cultists in the alter room. There was also a gorgon under shadow sway and an Orc who seemed made of shadow. The battle to destroy them was long and difficult. I was almost mortally wounded by the gorgon, which tore off my arm as I tried to kill it. After it was defeated, Aria thankfully managed to reattach my arm and restore me to some semblance of health, but it was a near thing. The Serpent wizard appeared disillusioned with his god after witnessing the deaths of so many of his people and the gorgon turning on him. He left through a portal, clearly a powerful wizard in his own right, as he left the staff which channeled the power of his god behind in the Temple. We found on the body of a dead Orc plans to invade the Formian Hive and a gate symbol on the map underneath it. We also found a map in the Temple showing the location of another temple, which Aria has determined to destroy. Winter 354 Dealing with Pirates Nils, Seraphine, Felix and I set out on the Spirit of Mithras to the East along the coast, searching for the pirates which were rumoured to still lurk in those waters. After about three days I spotted a ship on the horizon and alerted the crew. Nils took the form of a bat and reported back to us that the ship was crewed by pirates and led by a Shadow Cultist, and that they were preparing to attack. We sped towards them as they sped towards us, attempting to ram us, but I managed to destroy the ship’s wheel and the Spirit of Mithras easily outmaneuvered them. As we passed the enemy ship its archers began firing on us, so I set fire to their ship to cause a distraction. Nils flew above the enemy ship as a bat and then changed into a massive boulder to damage the ship’s deck. He is certainly an interesting and imaginative, if somewhat reckless, fellow. I managed to kill the cultist despite the magical protection the ship had against fire. However, with her dying breath, she summoned a fearsome sea monster, the Kraken, which began to attack both ships without her to command it. I recognised the beast from a book I once studied, so I knew that it was immune to magic, which left me almost useless in the ensuing battle. Nils, meanwhile, stole the Icewall Orb from the enemy ship, which had been producing the shield against fire, and handed it over to me. The Kraken was angered by the attempts of the other three to injure it, and it began crushing the Spirit of Mithras, even lifting it aloft. After must struggle and the loss of both masts, we drove the Kraken off. Before towing the battered but still salvageable Spirit back to land, we searched the debris of the enemy ship and found the captain’s logbook, which helpfully revealed the location of a pirate settlement, as well as containing several maps of unfamiliar lands. It was clear that the pirates are in the employ of the Shadow Cultists and under the command of someone referred to only as The Admiral—who, it should be well noted, is a woman, as I learned myself over a week later when we located the pirate settlement. We intended to sneak down to the settlement and learn what we could, but Seraphine and I tripped a hunting alarm, which brought two ruffians to see who we were. I managed to bluff my way into the camp by claiming to be a messenger from the Admiral. We were almost caught when I referred to the Admiral as “he,” but I managed to distract the ruffians with the Icewall Orb, claiming it was a gift from her. They took me to see their own captain, currently in the settlement, who was also completely taken in by my story. Oddly, he seems to have been a native of my homeland—the first I have seen on Mithrasia other than Asha. However, from his accent, I doubt he is from the same city as I. Perhaps this lent my claim credibility. Regardless, he happily told us the locations, numbers, and plans of the pirates under the employ of the Shadow Cultists. Once I felt he was no longer useful, I burnt him to a crisp, we took anything valuable we could find in his office, and walked out of the camp as if nothing had happened. I still almost cannot believe how well my hasty bluff worked. since Adrian worked so hard to come up with the names: The captain of the enemy ship the Kraken destroyed was Captain Farad. The one in the settlement was Captain al-Meir. Sura's report, a notice in the tavern reads: "For sale: the Icewall Orb. Creates a protective shield of ice shards around an area large enough for a ship, which negates a large amount of fire damage. Saps a small amount of strength from its bearer. Would be very useful for preventing fire on a ship. See Sura Darzi of Nils." Spring 354 Hunting Lord Silverfish posts no report this season. Sura can be heard in the tavern telling Asha the tale of her adventure this past season. "Well, it all went horribly," she begins. We didn't even find Lord Silverfish, we almost died, I had my mind invaded, that flashy adventurer who joined us turned out to be a young noblewoman, and I accidentally killed a Dwarf." She pauses, and adds "don't tell Ash-hammer about that part, Asha. Anyway, Morrigan, Nils, Scratch, Gabriel—Gabrielle, I mean—and I set out for the ruins of the elven settlement because Ash-hammer told us we might find clues there. But all we found were a bunch of angry Dwarves who didn't know what humans are and were planning to kill the dragon which had made a nest in the settlement so that they could get a key to a buried Elven ruin. We offered to help by negotiating with it to get the key. Which we did, and all it asked in return was the name of… er, well, it gave us the key without us having to even promise to return it, and so we headed into this ridiculously ornate underground city. Of course, it wasn't abandoned, such is out luck. We were attacked by dozens of totally enslaved Dwarves—even our Dwarven companions agreed that the kindest thing to do was to kill them—and a bunch of dark elves. I was quite disoriented by the darkness and the sudden attack of the dark elves, not to mention an earlier attack on my mind itself, and I accidentally caught one of the Dwarves in a fireball. It was awful… but the other Dwarves resurrected him later, somehow, so I had the rare opportunity to apologise to the man I had killed… Well, after the fight, we encountered a very strange bird man creature which told us it was called the Ekek. It led us to the ruler of the city, an elf lady. The elves there seemed to think they were the rightful rulers of everyone and everything, and they've been using those poor Dwarves and slaves for thousands of years. It didn't take us long to destroy her. Although she briefly managed to gain control of my mind, I easily prevented her from making me do any damage to my friends and quickly shook off her influence. We brought back her head for Ash-hammer, since he wanted us to bring him something… I really don’t think that’s what he meant, but the others insisted. We also told him about the Dwarf city to the South and how to find it, but I think it would be best to keep that knowledge to ourselves, for now. You agree, yes? Asha? ASHA!” Asha wakes up with a start. “Er… yes, yes, of course,” he says. The conversation from that point quickly deteriorates into an argument, and anyone listening will hear nothing more of interest. Gorm's Trial Sura's account of Gorm's Trial to a friend in the tavern, a little too loudly... The trial was a travesty from start to finish. The evidence was incomplete, the prosecution was poorly organised, and the jury clearly had no idea what they were doing. And Asha was called as a witness. That could have been disastrous! That boy has no idea how to keep his mouth shut. But all they asked him about was the shadows. He got to boast once more that he had been instrumental in the defeat of three Dread Lords. Tch. Some of the witnesses seemed more hostile to the barbarian. Seraphine was called as out of order several times when she began to hurl accusations and queries at Gorm herself, which is the Prosecutor's job. Hedwig, Asha's dwarf friend, gave a much more level-headed report. I admit, she is much more worthy of respect than I thought... although I question her choice of messengers. Ser Clemense sent a characteristically fiery condemnation, which I thought unnecessarily rude. Eventually Gorm was declared innocent by a jury which included a young man who thought his pony was a unicorn! Good grief... Summer 355 Saving Aalsud The Lawbringer Rislev, the time-shifted paladin Titanus, and the cosmically dim ranger Elliot and I all ended up being the only noteworthy patrons at the Wyvern's Rest one evening when a young man from the nearby village of Aalsud burst in, demanding the help of any adventurers present, as a demon was attacking the village every night. We accompanied him back to his village, where one of the farmers told us that the monster had carried off his daughter recently. We were planning to track it, but instead we had just left the village when the monster appeared on its way to attack once more. It was a massive, intangible lizard creature, and seemingly only my magic could harm it, so I dispelled the sleep magic it was working against my allies and drove it off with a well-aimed fireball. We took a short breather to recover from the battle, then Rislev led us unerringly in the direction the monster had gone. Eventually the trail stopped in the deadlands which line the White River, and Rislev found the exact source of the monster's magic. I set up a ritual to communicate with whatever was causing this destruction, sacrificing one of my precious few magical items for the cause, and with Rislev's help managed to pull the farmer's young daughter back into the land of the living, out of the grasp of the giant lizard monster. I quelled the malevolent magic, but only temporarily. We took her back to her family, who was very grateful. Rislev swore an oath to restore life to the river, ending this monster's scourge. Autumn 355 A Dread Lord in Taurius does not post a report immediately after her return to Whitmouth as she usually does. Instead she spends several hours in the library relaying her story to Hedwig, who writes down her story. The young urchin who has been spending a lot of time in the library lately then dutifully posts a copy in the Wyvern’s Rest and sends another copy to the office of the Governor. We decided that it would be foolish to face the Dread Lords without having at least tried to get the Dread Lord’s Name which the Minotaur of Taurius knew. Xeno, Mowakana, Daneria and I joined Euanak on a diplomatic mission to his village on the Cliffs of Cloud. However, tragedy had befallen the village, which was a beautifully crafted creation, perched on the face of a sheer cliff which ran down to the ocean. It didn’t take us long to realise that it had been attacked by Shadow Cultists and even one of the Dread Lords themselves, judging by the way the Minotaur had been tossed about like ragdolls. Poor Euanak. His only stroke of fortune was that there were no women and children amongst the dead; nor could we find the body of the tribe’s chieftain or shaman. We found that the women and children had managed to hide in the sea caves near the base of the cliff, thanks to the brave actions of the chieftain, taking some of his warriors and his shaman and leading the Dread Lord off into the forest. Of course, once we knew they were safe, we set out immediately to aid Euanak’s chieftain. We found them making a last stand near the base of a mountain range against a Dread Lord and a small horde of Shadow Cultists. With great difficulty we fought off the Dread Lord long enough to rescue the last few remaining Minotaur and teleport back to Whitmouth, although not without great cost. Several Minotaur and local creatures lost their lives in the battle, and I nearly fell to death myself. We have discovered, to our horror, that Shadow Portals actually take the user via the Void, and they should be used only very carefully lest a spell interfere with them and leave the unfortunate adventurers wandering in the void until they freeze. Upon our return, the Minotaur agreed to tell Euanak the name, but on the condition that he told no one else. Before he had a chance to argue, Mowakana, losing patience, simply ripped the name out of the shaman’s mind with a spell. In return, Mowakana’s hovel was destroyed in a small fight—I don’t know what exactly happened, but it was very noisy. Eventually the Minotaur agreed to be peaceful, for now, and retire to Euanak’s mansion. I am no longer capable of aiding in the mission to see the Dread Lords destroyed, but I advise you all to use the utmost of caution. Dread Lords are more powerful than you can possibly imagine. It is a miracle that any of us are still alive. who see Sura, who now seems even more quiet and secluded than she did after the events of her previous two adventures, will note that her eyes are covered by a heavy layer of bandages and she seems constantly disoriented. Often one of her friends, usually Asha, is with her, making sure she doesn’t walk into anything. long after a strange and noisy fight in the middle of the poorer district of Whitmouth which the Guard broke up, a very, very large hovel suddenly sprang up where the Lizard Den used to be. The hovels to either side, which you happen to know belonged to Sura and Asha, were demolished instantly. For now Asha will be staying in Ash-hammer's spare room (probably sleeping on a mattress stuffed with gold pieces, if the rest of the house is furnished anything like his living room). You're not sure where Sura is staying, but she is not happy about the whole situation.